questions about platform

I got set up with this platform and have wasted an entire day trying to get it to do what I need a charting application to do. I can't see actually trading with this. Is there any way at all to left click on a chart and drag it around inside the window? I have my eSignal open right beside this and it is really amazing how non-intuitive and totally user unfriendly this thing is. If I want to compress the data inside the window I then have to do several mouse clicks to go in and set it to auto scale again. I cannot just hold down the left mouse button and drag the data (price bars) around within the window like every other charting app in the world can. What's up with that? Changing time frames takes several more clicks to even do a simple thing like that. I am totally bummed with this application. I sent a support request to try to get my money back.

In 24 years of trading and several trading platforms I just cannot believe that a supposed high-quality trading app would be like this. It should not take more than an hour to get up and running with the very most basic functionality. Even the data feed setup did not work anything at all like the video said it should. It took almost two hours to stumble on to how to make that work. I am not really impressed with eSignal but at least I was up and running in under 30 minutes with it and it is far more user friendly than multicharts is. I had no data to work with on demo so could not discover this stuff before buying a lifetime license. Sure hope I can get my money back on this.

I got set up with this platform and have wasted an entire day trying to get it to do what I need a charting application to do. I can't see actually trading with this. Is there any way at all to left click on a chart and drag it around inside the window? I have my eSignal open right beside this and it is really amazing how non-intuitive and totally user unfriendly this thing is. If I want to compress the data inside the window I then have to do several mouse clicks to go in and set it to auto scale again. I cannot just hold down the left mouse button and drag the data (price bars) around within the window like every other charting app in the world can. What's up with that? Changing time frames takes several more clicks to even do a simple thing like that. I am totally bummed with this application. I sent a support request to try to get my money back.

In 24 years of trading and several trading platforms I just cannot believe that a supposed high-quality trading app would be like this. It should not take more than an hour to get up and running with the very most basic functionality. Even the data feed setup did not work anything at all like the video said it should. It took almost two hours to stumble on to how to make that work. I am not really impressed with eSignal but at least I was up and running in under 30 minutes with it and it is far more user friendly than multicharts is. I had no data to work with on demo so could not discover this stuff before buying a lifetime license. Sure hope I can get my money back on this.

Really!
An entire day and you couldn't set it up? Common...

Multicharts offers 30 days for you to try it. Why did you buy a license without testing it first?
There's something called a manual where explains how things work. Have you "wasted" any time to look at it? If you had, you would have noticed that you can set up keyboard shortcuts for managing the chart scales. With your 24 year trading experience (clearly not chart platform experience), you would have noticed that Multicharts uses many of the same keyboard/mouse keys to manage the chart the same way other platforms do. Press Ctrl button and scrolling the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Click left mouse button on price scale and drag it to change its compression and many others that I'll let you figure it out... because it's Sunday and I have other things to do.

The majority of traders use their broker feed to power Multicharts and many others use external feeds such as IQFeed or eSignal power it. It's the same thing like any other platform out there.

But I understand you, I did the exact same thing you're doing here.
I'm with Multicharts since version 4, so I'm with them for many, many years now. A couple of years ago I used other 2 platforms because at the time they had tools that were not available in Multicharts and like you, I started bitching how their software worked and how little user friendly they were. I was so accustomed to Multicharts that everything else seemed flawed.
After a couple of weeks I started to see how in fact they were very similar and the difference was just how the same thing was done but in a different way.
A couple of months later I ditched the other platforms because Multicharts started to offer the tools I needed and never looked at another platform since.

There's no point coming here complaining how Multicharts works because it's working has always have, flawless. If you can't understand it, the problem is clearly yours, not the platform.

Yes 24 years spent on TS, NT Charts, SC and now eSignal Charts. I had no data for the demo version so not useful for evaluation. And no Multicharts is no where near as user friendly as eSignal is. Period. The ability to hold the left mouse button down and drag the window content around then re-size it totally as desired is extrememly powerful when using proprietary SnR zone definition. Extremely powerful and that cannot be done with Multicharts. In fact in making the comparison I now realize just how powerful eSignal really is as far as ability to manipulate symbol overlay along with manipulation of window content. Just superlative. I am sure that with enough use Multicharts could become tolerable just due to intimate familiarity with the platform. And if one is in to writing custom code for indicators (I am not) then that is likely one area where Multicharts would definitely be superior. Since I just trade the price bars and don't use indicators that capability is of no use to me. The ability to manipulate the window content however is so important it cannot be emphasized enough that should be included in Multicharts. But if one is really wrapped up in using indicators and building a system based on those indicators then I guess that would then be more important -but- I got over that stage many years ago.

It is true that when familiar with a certain platform the user interface becomes second nature and any other platform will seem cumbersome. If they will not refund my money on Multicharts then I will likely play with it when there is nothing else to do (never) or just forget about it. Just count it as a really bad losing trade and learn from the experience. I clearly jumped the gun on this purchase without doing the requisite research but the discount was if I bot before the end of the month and that was compelling. My fault for being too quick to pull the trigger and that critique is valid. I had an idea I really wanted to try to build and did not think I could do it on eSignal (subsequently discovered it was quite easy) and had recs from another trader about how good Multicharts was and that the idea could be implemented on this platform. And I am sure it can be with enough time spent learning the platform. My bad...

HOWEVER in my humble opinion Multicharts REALLY NEEDS TO ADD THE CONTENT MANIPULATION FEATURE to their charting. I constantly use that to drag bars around, size candles wider or narrower on the X axis, size the candles or bars taller or shorter on the Y axis since I am all about targets range relative and market rhythm. No indicators necessary or desired other than SnR zones I put on the charts. It is all 100% graphical representation so the ability to manipulate as desired immediately is paramount. Any excellent charting app should include the ability to do so and I just naturally assumed Multicharts could do that. Oh well...

Yes 24 years spent on TS, NT Charts, SC and now eSignal Charts. I had no data for the demo version so not useful for evaluation.
::

MultiCharts does not offer a demo version.

What you get is a 30 day FREE trial of the full function MultiCharts.

Nothing is handicapped.
Nothing is disabled.
Nothing is limited.
Nothing is shaded.
Nothing is blocked.

You get to test out the exact MultiCharts that you are going to buy.

You can connect MultiCharts to your eSignal right away and start making charts
(or to whatever supported dataprovider you are subscribing).
You can connect MultiCharts to your broker right away and start trading immediately.

There are no limitations except for the 30 days.

I made a small video showing how easy it can be manipulating Multichart's chart.

http://www.screencast.com/t/gnISOS2ACgO

With your mouse or your keyboard, you manipulate the chart like any other platform does. Keys might change but overall it's all the same.
Sure, there are a couple of things you might not be able to do in Multicharts, like there's things you cannot do in other platforms but in Multicharts you can.
That's one of the reasons why many use more than one platform because there's no one single platform that has it all.

HOWEVER in my humble opinion Multicharts REALLY NEEDS TO ADD THE CONTENT MANIPULATION FEATURE to their charting. I constantly use that to drag bars around, size candles wider or narrower on the X axis, size the candles or bars taller or shorter on the Y axis since I am all about targets range relative and market rhythm.

I don't know eSignal and that content manipulation feature, but it sounds to me like the background dragging feature you'll also see in Arnie's video (around 0:33 when the mouse cursor becomes a little 'stop hand').

(By the way, let's try not to be too harsh towards Commtrd. There's some good feedback in this thread for MultiCharts LLC, also regarding the onboarding of new users).

I just did not have any time to speak of to eally check it out before having to leave the town I am working at and driving 300 miles to get back home. They said the discount was only good to yesterday so I jumped on it due to the recommendation from another trader. If I was just starting out with the platform before any others I am certain it would have been just fine. So there was a confluence of issues some of which have nothing to do with the plarform itself and some which do. I will work with it some more to see if there is something it will do that eSignal or others will not. Looks like there is a good solid community here and nthat speaks highly for the platform itself. Quality attracts quality people.

Hello Commtrd,

our support team is willing to help you configure MultiCharts for charting and trading. If you face any difficulties or cannot find some features that you need to use I would ask you to contact our support via email (support@multicharts.com) or via Live Chat (operation hours 6:30 AM - 3 PM EST) directly.

Hello Commtrd,

our support team is willing to help you configure MultiCharts for charting and trading. If you face any difficulties or cannot find some features that you need to use I would ask you to contact our support via email (support@multicharts.com) or via Live Chat (operation hours 6:30 AM - 3 PM EST) directly.

Commtrd - You will find no better support than MC. If you contact live chat they will give you all the help you need until the issue(s) are resolved. And you'll never feel rushed. Best service by far!